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About this video

There are three main job areas in academia. Research, teaching and a combination of the two. This video gives you a quick introduction to what jobs are available in academia and the common job titles you might see advertised.

Transcript

There are three main job areas in academia. Research, teaching and a combination of the two.

Many universities offer posts centred on research only. In these roles you will do a few hours teaching, but your main focus will be research.

You will normally be tied to a specific project for a set period of time, from 18 months to 5 years.

You will work alongside other researchers and will be managed by a full time academic. These jobs will be advertised as ‘research assistant’ or ‘research associate’.

Not all jobs of this type require you to have completed a PhD. A Masters may be sufficient, although your starting salary will be lower.

Jobs which do require a PhD refer to candidates as being ‘postdoctoral’.

Other university roles focus only on teaching. These are also often short term contracts, perhaps for a single semester or a year. As a Teaching Associate or Associate Lecturer, you’ll be required to teach someone else’s courses.

The third type of academic job combines teaching and research with administration positions in a department.

These jobs can either be temporary or permanent and will be referred to as lectureships, senior lecturer, principal lecturer, reader or professor. In these roles you are able to design your own courses and therefore work with a certain degree of autonomy.

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